Cohen is best known for her years as the primary songwriter and lead singer of The Vels, the Philadelphia band she co-created in the early 1980s. They were signed in 1984 to the Mercury label under which they released two albums. They had one minor hit ("Look My Way") and a successful MTV music video.

After The Vels dissolved in 1987, Cohen's work changed direction and she became active in the indie/underground and touring scene. Cohen's best-known venture in this period was the band Die Monster Die. DMD released two albums: 1992's Chrome Molly, on Dutch East, and 1994's Withdrawal Method on Roadrunner Records.[3] The band broke up soon after. (N.B. that in 1995, another band called Die Monster Die was founded in Utah; this band is unrelated to the band Cohen was in.[4])

In recent years, Cohen has performed frequently as a solo act, as well as collaborating with a number of groups including LYDSOD, Long Lost, Raw Thrills,[5] Castles, and Espadrille.[6]

With the release of Cohen's solo records, she became active in video and animation, creating music videos to accompany her own releases,[7][8] as well as composing soundtracks for other animations and video projects.

Cohen's collages and paintings have appeared in galleries in New York City, San Francisco and elsewhere.

In 2008, Cohen began to produce animated music videos for artists such as Ducktails,[9] Coasting,[10] Broken Deer,[11] and Greatest Hits,[12] using found imagery and objects in traditional cut-out & stop-motion animation style.

Other video/animation work includes "Single Sentence Animations" for the literary journal Electric Literature[13] as well as gallery and installation work. Cohen animated 17 episodes of the 2016 TV show "Single + Swiping" for Full Screen Network.

In 2010, Cohen had her first solo exhibition of visual works including video, collage, and installation, which took place at Live With Animals gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[14][15]

Her work has been screened at Anthology Film Archives, The Filmmaker's Co-op, Printed Matter, Microscope Gallery, Millennium Film Workshop, The New Museum, The Morbid Anatomy Museum, and The Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw, Poland.

She has made music videos for dozens of indie bands and musicians, and recently animated the online television show, "Single and Swiping" for the Fullscreen Network.